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Retired AP reporter Hugh Mulligan, a Catholic who once considered the priesthood but chose journalism as his vocation, died recently from pancreatic cancer. He was 83. He was “a legendary storyteller” with a “wit as penetrating as his humor was revealing,” said Tom Curley, president of AP, in an AP story about Mulligan’s Nov. 26 death. “He will be missed immensely.”

According to AP, Mulligan could find a story “in almost anything” he came across. He traveled the world — 146 countries — and his assignments covered the gamut. But colleagues recalled that one of his favorite assignments was traveling with Pope John Paul II, and they joked how he seemed to somehow always manage to mention the Catholic Church in his stories. He worked for AP for 49 years, retiring in 2000.

A funeral Mass was celebrated for him Dec. 2 at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Ridgefield, Conn. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Brigid (Murphy) Mulligan. The couple married in 1948 at her parish in Armagh, Northern Ireland.